Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
He ought to be glad she’d turned down his dinner invitation. This get-together wasn’t optional for anyone named Barron. And the only way he’d get through it was to force Liza to the back of his mind. He’d think about her and how he’d move forward later. Now he stared up at the mansion, reminding himself why he was here.
What had started as a strained weekly event to give his half sister, Tess, a sense of normalcy had morphed into something all three brothers enjoyed. Of course it helped that the two Barron wives, Faith and Kelly, insisted nothing short of death would be an acceptable excuse, but over time they’d all come to like the sense of family these dinners gave them. One they’d lacked for too long.
By now Dare ought to be used to the monster mansion Ethan owned, but the sheer size never ceased to amaze him. They’d grown up on the other side of town in a small house with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, which was tiny compared to most homes in the area. Back then they’d been a family of five with their share of problems, including three rambunctious boys. Ethan, the oldest, caused his share of trouble and had had his own room. Dare shared his bedroom with Nash.
Everything had been normal until one night after Ethan turned eighteen and was arrested. Their parents went to bail Ethan out and were killed by a drunk driver on the way to the police station.
Had Ethan stuck around to raise his siblings?
Hell, no, he’d taken off for parts unknown, not coming home until ten years later. Almost one year ago, Dare thought. Time they’d spent first fighting, then forced to get along when Tess ended up on Ethan’s doorstep, the product of an affair nobody knew their father had had. She’d been a juvenile delinquent, dropped off by her half sister, Kelly Moss. She and Tess had the same mother.
A clusterfuck of a mess that somehow had brought them all together as a family. Including his middle brother Nash, who was now married to Kelly.
Shaking his head, Dare rang the doorbell, not surprised when the delinquent herself answered the door. Except Tess now bore no resemblance to that messed-up kid. Gone was the black hair with a purple stripe, eyebrow ring, and all-black clothing topped with an ever-present army jacket and combat boots she’d even worn in ninety-degree heat. Instead, she dressed in a pair of leggings and a concert T-shirt. Bare feet peeked out, toes revealing royal blue nail polish. And her hair was a light brown, her blue eyes pronounced in her tiny face.
“You gonna stare at me all night or are you coming in?” Tess asked, breaking into his thoughts.
Okay, so the sarcasm occasionally remained, Dare thought with a grin, but the Tess standing at the door was a normal teenage member of the Barron family.
Dare pulled her in for a hug. She squirmed but accepted the gesture. “You’re the last one here. Let’s go eat.”
“I need to wash up first.” He headed to the downstairs bathroom, cleaned up the best he could, and met Tess again outside the door. Apparently she’d decided to wait so she could drag him into the dining room.
Just like she said, he was the last one in and, as usual, the most underdressed. But the family was used to him in his uniform or his sweats or even a pair of old jeans.
“You’re next to me.” Tess pointed to their side of the table.
Ethan sat at the head, Faith by his side, then Nash and Kelly on one long side, Dare and Tess across from the newly married couple. Their wedding had been a Christmas event, family only, in the mansion, just like Ethan and Faith’s had been in October.
Dare was the lone bachelor.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said instead of dwelling on that subject.
“No problem, we just sat down because Anna said dinner was ready and Miss Impatient here insisted she needed bread or she’d pass out.” Faith shot a fond look at Tess.
“You indulge the brat,” Nash said under his breath, but the grin on his face gave his true meaning away.
“I heard that,” Tess said through a mouthful of buttered roll.
“You were supposed to.” Nash winked at her.
The rest of the family rolled their eyes and laughed.
Nash and Tess had had the rockiest time coming to terms, but Tess now idolized all three of her brothers equally. Nash and Tess just liked to give each other the hardest time. Like real siblings, something Dare had desperately missed when he’d gone to live across town in the Garcias’ foster home without Nash.
“So what’d I miss?” Dare asked.
Anna, Ethan’s housekeeper, who he liked to say came with the house, began serving dinner. To Faith and now the rest of them, Anna was like family, as she’d worked for Faith’s parents when they’d lived here, and she’d practically raised Faith. Now she was helping out with Tess.